It has now been confirmed that nine dead bodies have been retrieved from the flooded mining pit at Moabok, a community near Gbane in the Talensi District of the Upper East Region.

This follows several hours of rescue operations carried out by personnel of the National Disaster Management Organization (NADMO), the Ghana Police Service and the Ghana National Fire Service.

The bodies were suspected to have been trapped inside the pit since Monday, May 31,2021 after torrential rains rendered the pit unsafe as it became flooded and subsequently trapped the bodies inside.

Read also: 7 Trapped in flooded mining pit at Moabok in Upper East Region

The Public Affairs Officer of the Upper East Regional Police Command, Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP), Mr David Fianko-Okyere, made this known to the Graphic Online at Bolgatanga on Thursday morning (June 3,2021).

ASP Fianko-Okyere explained that six other people who were part of the small scale mining group that went for mining activities at the mining site however managed to come out of the pit before the disaster struck.

On Wednesday excavators were used to draw out water from the pit that enabled the rescue team to retrieve the bodies.

According to the Public Affairs Officer, the operation is still ongoing to retrieve more bodies.

Background

On Monday, May 31,2021 at about 10:00pm, police received a complaint that a number of small scale miners had gone out to mine at the Moabok mining site but got trapped inside the flooded mining pit.

Subsequently, relatives and friends of these small scale miners who got worried when the miners did not return home from work, later lodged a complaint with the police.